Episode 18: In Which DFM Tap Dances On Korean Television, And Almost Gets Hit By A Car While Walking On The Sidewalk (Again!)

Last week I mentioned I was planning on meeting Hyeun A this weekend, but she was too busy, so I changed plans and asked out Kyu-rhang - a friend I met at Summit Climbing Centre during my last visit.

We decided to meet at Hongik University. In the past I've always heard this area referred to as Hongdae, but never knew why. It has only been recently that I've made the obvious connection that Hongik University's Korean name is "Hong-dae-ip-gu."

When I went to the designated meeting spot I found that every Korean in the area seemed to have chosen this point for meeting a friend as well. Since I couldn't actually remember exactly what Kyu-rhang looked like, I decided to walk around and try to look as "foreign" as possible. My planned worked, as it did not take but a few seconds before Kyu-rhang tapped my shoulder.

Kyu-rhang asked me where I wanted to eat. I had been thinking about this on my way over, and I figured that Hongik University (an area noted for its many foreigners, dance clubs and University students) would not likely have a plethora of traditional Korean restaurants. I noticed a Quizno's down one side street and thought it would be neat to compare how a Koreanized toasted submarine sandwich with the Canadian version.

To keep my experiment as scientific as possible I ordered the same size of Mesquite Chicken toasted sub I usually order in Canada. I'm happy to say that the ingredients looked more or less the same, and despite my worst fears there was no coleslaw in the sandwich (unlike my burrito with Hyeun-A). That said, the chicken was not as thick or seasoned as the chicken used in Canada, and the bun was made with a different kind of bread and was a little dry.

After lunch, Kyu-rhang and I went for a walk. During my last stay I noticed that my friend Woojin would sometimes wear a shirt that featured a Lego man on the front. I figured it was something he had picked up when he studied English in England. However, since then I have seen many other Koreans wearing similar shirts. When I researched the brand BANC, I found out it was actually a Korean clothing brand. On this walk I told Kyu-rhang about how I really wanted to save up my money and buy a bunch of the shirts with different designs, but that I could never find a BANC clothing store. She had just finished telling me that she had never heard of this brand (ironically most of my Korean friends have never heard about this brand), when we walked right past a BANC clothing store. I couldn't see any of the prices on the clothes through the window, but the staff person looked snobbish and disinterested, so I can only imagine that the shirts are overpriced. I'm not concerned about that though, as I've already started a secret stash of money consisting of any budget surplus I can produce each week, and before I go back to Canada I'm going to buy out the store.

We continued to walk around Hongdae some more, until we came across an old man and two women tap dancing. I mentioned to Kyu-rhang that I liked tap dancing and that one day I wanted to try it. At that moment, a man with a video camera who seemed directly involved with the show asked me if I wanted to come up on stage and try to tap dance with the man. Being a good sport, I said I'd give it a try.

The instructor showed me a few basic steps, and after a couple of minutes of dancing while I was video taped, the instructor said I was a good dancer and the cameraman/director interviewed me. He told me that the instructor was 70 years old, and wanted to know what I felt about a 70 year old man tap dancing. I told him what I had told Kyu-rhang: that in Canada people who are 70 do not do many active things, and that seeing this man dancing gave me hope that when I am 70 I can enjoy my life like him too. The director seemed pleased with my response, but I think he was just more happy to have captured "foreigner dancing with Korean grandpa" on tape than anything. Kyu-rhang later told me that the dancing was part of a special television show for Chuseok (a Korean national holiday in which families get together to honour deceased relatives).

After my dancing, we went for some more walking. However, it wasn't long before some crazy driver in a van tried to drive up and park on the sidewalk, almost trapping us between a building and the side of the van in the process. This is the second time I've seen a car driving on the sidewalk, and I figured that it was a sign that it was time to leave.

Episode 4: In which DFM Gets Lost Hiking And Then Gets Taken Out For Dinner (Again)

Saturday is here, and after one "hard" day of feeling like three people at once (refer to Episode 2), I take a well deserved rest. First though, I need to head to "Korean Hollywood," Chungmuro, to see my boss and sign my contract.

On my way there, my boss phoned to tell me that he told my roommate and "agent" Lee to tell me to phone him at 11:00 AM, to set up an appointment. Lee however had told me to go see my boss at 11:00 AM. Since my boss said it would take him about an hour to get to his office from his house (Seoul is a big city), I thought I would make a detour to do some shopping in Haebongchon (long time readers will recognize that place as my original Korean stomping grounds for one day).

I had always been told that Haebongchon was an area in which many foreigners (any non-Asian is automatically considered a foreigner) lived. Since most of my hiking to Namsan started in the late morning during my last visit, I must have not seen them since they were at work. Today though it was warm, and they were out in full force. Sometimes they could be seen "prowling" the street in groups of five or more. One such group seemed to be from Australia, and I could have sworn I heard them say they were going "crocodile hunting," but I must have misheard them.

Namsan Park is a large green wonderland in the middle of an otherwise grey Seoul. You'll remember I used to hike up to the tower and that there were many workout parks located throughout. There is a running/biking path around the base of the park, and I had always wanted to see where it went but never had the time or motivation in the spring. Today though I thought since I had an hour (about a half hour earlier) I might as well see if I could get to the other side, where my boss' office was located. However, Namsan Park is a lot bigger than it looks on a map and it took me two hours to arrive. On the bright side, I managed to successfully ask for directions, in Korean, twice.

Eventually I stumbled into my boss' office, exhausted and dehydrated. I must not have fully recovered before signing my contract though, for in the blank to enter my salary I wrote "2 000 Won," which those of you with access to the CDN -> KRW exchange rate will recognize as only being roughly $2 a month. My boss corrected me and we had a good laugh. He was particularly glad with his joke that he "saved me life."

Speaking of funny, I witnessed a Korean trying to pay off a police officer today on my hike. I'm not sure what happened, but he and the police officer were having quite an argument (you can yell at police officers without having a white undershirt on?) and I saw the man pull out a wad of bills and try and hand it to the officer. For all this Korean Cop's criticisms of Korean police officers and the Korean justice system, to this officer's credit he did not take the bribe. I don't know what happened of the situation though, since I left before the argument ended (for all I know it is still going on, since the officer did not seem prepared to do anything concrete about it). But I digress...

After the nasty business of talking about money was complete, my boss took me out for lunch where he attempted to convince me to stay for longer. If I'm not careful I'll be a partner in the company before I leave.

I haven't taken a lot of pictures yet this trip because I'm just in Seoul, and readers of my last Korea trip blog will have seen most of the exciting things in Seoul there are to see. However, during my last trip I was rarely able to get a clear shot of Seoul buildings because of all the yellow dust. I noticed today, from the base of Namsan Park, looking over Yongsan-gu (in which my old home Itaewon is located) that summer brings about relatively clear skies. I have decided to upload this photo, for your viewing pleasure, of a view that I always found enjoyable but was never able to accurately capture during my last stay. It's tough to appreciate, but I'm actually standing halfway up a hill, and the view is looking down on the city. It is quite breathtaking, each time I view it, but I fear the same sense of wonder does not work as well in 2-D. You can however click on the image to see a larger version in which the many individual roof tops can be better seen.